Call airport Stuurman – Khoisan

The Khoisan community of Nelson Mandela Bay have called for Port Elizabeth International Airport to be renamed the David Stuurman International Airport after the prominent indigenous leader.

Khoisan tribes gathered outside the South End Museum in the city yesterday and walked to the airport to hand over a memorandum to the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) management.

The deadline for proposals on renaming several airports was yesterday. Acsa has called for proposals on renaming four airports: Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, East London and Kimberley.

Speaking before the walk, Khoisan chief Prophet Crawford Fraser said Chief David Stuurman was a prominent leader of the Eastern Cape and played a key role in the Khoi rebellion between 1799 and 1803.

Fraser said Stuurman was one of the first political prisoners sent to Robben Island and was a symbol of the Khoisan peoples’ struggle.

The Khoisan community in Nelson Mandela Bay sent a request to government four years ago for the airport be renamed in honour of Stuurman, he said.

“Stuurman was lured to Aus- tralia under false pretence. They told him his wife and children were waiting for him there. But the reason they transported him to Australia is because colonialism did not want Stuurman on the soil of Africa.”

Stuurman’s mortal remains still lie in Australia and could not be repatriated to South Africa.

“He was a man that fought for the freedom and liberation of the people who were found here,” said Fraser.

“For us, as the descendants of the Khoisan in Nelson Mandela Bay, the name Chief David Stuurman is our first choice.” – ANA

Stuurman fought for the freedom and liberation of the people who were found here.

Crawford Fraser Khoisan chief